MFA Program
See writers who attended this program
Poetry: Matthew Burnside, Pauline Kaldas, Thorpe Moeckel, Meighan Sharp
Fiction: Matthew Burnside, Pauline Kaldas, Joe Milan, C.E. Morgan, Zeus Sumra, Jessie van Eerden
Nonfiction: Matthew Burnside, Pauline Kaldas, Joe Milan, Thorpe Moeckel, C.E. Morgan, Zeus Sumra, Jessie van Eerden
All 10 incoming MFA students are awarded, each year, a tuition waiver and Graduate Assistantship with a stipend ($5000–7000). Additionally, a $7,000 Teaching Assistantship is available to four second-year students based on application. Each year, a $600–750 Travel and Research Award is available to all MFA students.
Cross-genre work is encouraged. This program is home to the Jackson Center for Creative Writing and features a robust Visiting Writers Series as well as a literary festival. Recent guest writers have included Yiyun Li, Forrest Gander, Yuri Herrera, Jaquira Díaz, A. Van Jordan, Remica Bingham-Risher, Julian Brolaski, Nina MacLaughlin, Crystal Hana Kim, and Philip Metres. A spring semester course is taught by a writer-in-residence; recent writers-in-residence: Nickole Brown, Akhil Sharma, and Anne Boyer.
Madison Smartt Bell, Anna Caritj, Brandon Courtney, Kiran Desai, Jen Fawkes, Kristina Gorcheva-Newberry, Luke Johnson, Matthew Klam, Chanlee Luu, Sally Mann, Will Schutt, Natasha Trethewey, Gretchen VanWormer